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Experience as a Fiverr seller and some tips

by icegin
14 replies
Hi guys

I haven't been very active on WF lately, but I'd like to contribute some information related to Fiverr which, I hope, some of you will find useful. First off, I want to emphasise that I am NOT earning a living off of Fiverr right now -- I'm still very much in the early stages of establishing my own business. I just wanted to share this with anyone who might be interested.

About a month ago I posted a gig there that offered my services as an artist (specifically, drawing cartoons). According to the current stats, I've had a total of less than 10 orders. Since Fiverr sellers essentially earn $4 per gig, that should mean that I've earned under $40. Nothing special.

The reality, however, is that I've earned over $300 -- this is from the clients I attracted exclusively through Fiverr. And I haven't done anything to attract people to my gig beyond posting it (yet).

Here is a basic guide that I strongly believe everyone should adhere to when offering a service online:

1. Reply quickly to inquiries. This is important for obvious reasons. Buyers want to know that you're trustworthy and it's quite difficult to establish a strong relationship with someone online if you don't answer their questions promptly and professionally. Always keep the lines of communication open.

2. Meet your deadline. Or better yet, exceed the buyer's expectations. If you can finish a job quickly (and properly), this will increase the confidence of potential clients. But never sacrifice quality for speed. And do not make promises that you can't keep -- it's always a good idea to have a bit of wiggle room when setting a deadline, just in case.

3. Take pride in your work. I see a lot of people here turning their noses up at Fiverr and saying that it isn't worth the effort to sell anything for $5 that requires more than $5 worth of work. I agree with this, but only to an extent. If you're using it as a platform to attract people to your business (regardless of what that might be), you should be prepared to go the extra mile. Present your Fiverr gig as an opportunity for others to sample your services. When buyers see that you're hardworking and reliable, they will be more likely to return. Case in point: a client who purchased a simple $5 gig ended up contacting me directly the next day for a larger project that earned me over $150.

4. Choose something that you will be willing to put work into. I think a mistake that a lot of people make (including myself) is going after whatever they think will earn them the most money. From what I've read on WF, individuals who are successful with their endeavors are successful because they are dedicated and persistent. In my opinion, the easiest way to adopt this mindset is to truly enjoy what you're doing. You can certainly go with the "grit your teeth and work through it" thing -- some people are very good at it -- but I prefer the former.


So there you are. I'm sure that these tips have been shared in some form or other here, but I think they're important enough to repeat.


Best of luck.
#experience #fiverr #seller #tips
  • Profile picture of the author imfusa
    First one and second one should be required and the rest are of good faith. Anyway thanks for tips, and congrats for the earnings.
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    • Profile picture of the author fluffythewondercat
      I think you put your finger on the issue for a lot of people when you said that in a month you'd had fewer than 10 orders. That's actually a success story. Most people don't get any orders.

      I don't have anything against microjobs -- I'm active with another microjob service for the fun and learning of it. But as I said in my 2000th post:

      What I wish for you is the power that comes from knowing you can walk away from a deal and lose nothing.

      Fiverr requires you to accept gigs if you want to retain your rating. That strips you of the ability to walk away. And that eliminates the power to set your own terms. Basically, you can stay or you can quit.

      I quit. I like being able to decide who I work with. Isn't that why we left our 9-to-5s and struck out on our own?

      I never liked the desperation angle, anyway. The common thinking goes: who would offer a service for $5? Obviously someone who really needs the money. And if they need money that badly, perhaps they'd be willing to.... (insert distasteful act here).

      Now, some sellers are able to frame their gigs in such a way the buyer should understand clearly that what they're getting for $5 is a sample, very limited in scope. But there are market pressures at work. Once other people offer the identical service with a more generous deliverable, all bets are off.

      fLufF
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      • Profile picture of the author icegin
        Originally Posted by fluffythewondercat View Post

        I think you put your finger on the issue for a lot of people when you said that in a month you'd had fewer than 10 orders. That's actually a success story. Most people don't get any orders.

        I don't have anything against microjobs -- I'm active with another microjob service for the fun and learning of it. But as I said in my 2000th post:

        What I wish for you is the power that comes from knowing you can walk away from a deal and lose nothing.

        Fiverr requires you to accept gigs if you want to retain your rating. That strips you of the ability to walk away. And that eliminates the power to set your own terms. Basically, you can stay or you can quit.

        I quit. I like being able to decide who I work with. Isn't that why we left our 9-to-5s and struck out on our own?

        I never liked the desperation angle, anyway. The common thinking goes: who would offer a service for $5? Obviously someone who really needs the money. And if they need money that badly, perhaps they'd be willing to.... (insert distasteful act here).

        Now, some sellers are able to frame their gigs in such a way the buyer should understand clearly that what they're getting for $5 is a sample, very limited in scope. But there are market pressures at work. Once other people offer the identical service with a more generous deliverable, all bets are off.

        fLufF
        --
        I see your point. However, I think there are specific types of gigs where the effects of competition are negligible because, even if your gig is replicated by others, your service will remain unique. Art is a perfect example. I have my own style, technique, etc. There are other people there that offer the same thing but their work is still completely different from mine, and vice versa. I suspect this is the same case for gigs that require a little creative ability/thinking. The trick is, of course, to make sure that people are aware of your service and your abilities.

        RE not being able to walk away from a job: this is why I think point #4 is important. In the future when you have more clients than you know what to do with, picking and choosing who you work with is great. In the early stages though, I consider it simply as an opportunity to hone my skills and increase my experience. I dedicate most of my spare time to art anyway because it's what I enjoy doing the most.
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  • Profile picture of the author MikeViney
    Nice review and critque, thanks!
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  • Profile picture of the author AlexanderGER
    interesting experiences. thanks for sharing. I use fiverr as a buyer about twice a month to get some little things done. but from a sellers perspective its right than pressure can make you loose profits cause you have to add more and more value and only get 4 bugs... what I did not understand ICEGIN is how the buyer could contact you beside fiverr. thought they have serveral techniques to prevent direct contacts.
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    • Profile picture of the author icegin
      Originally Posted by AlexanderGER View Post

      interesting experiences. thanks for sharing. I use fiverr as a buyer about twice a month to get some little things done. but from a sellers perspective its right than pressure can make you loose profits cause you have to add more and more value and only get 4 bugs... what I did not understand ICEGIN is how the buyer could contact you beside fiverr. thought they have serveral techniques to prevent direct contacts.
      True, Fiverr's TOS is pretty strict when it comes to buyers and sellers contacting each other offsite. However, Fiverr does allow people to link to either a Flickr or YouTube account as a means of displaying more examples of your work (in my case, I use it as a portfolio to upload my other completed art projects). You can include your own details there and, if your clients are so inclined, they might visit your Flickr/Youtube link and decide to contact you directly.

      If someone asks for more work than the gig you're offering entails, simply let them know that while you don't offer x directly on Fiverr, but it's something that you're open to take on if they're interested in discussing the job in further detail directly. Then you inform them that there is a link to your portfolio or whatever, and that all the details they need are there. I think you need to be careful about how you word your response -- you don't want to just say "my email address and other contact info are available at that link" openly in your Fiverr message.
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  • Profile picture of the author alexcercel
    Fiverr... great little website if you're providing the right service. I only tried it for about a month with decent results and a very small investment.

    And always look at it as a lead generation website/way not as a business you can survive on. Unless you're providing a very easy to do for you gig that you can get clients for day in and day out.

    Here're my results:


    Here's what I did:

    1. Research
    I searched the market to find a gig I could provide. The main criteria was to be something that sold well on Fiverr and I could do pretty fast (10-15 minutes AT MOST)

    2. I created the gig like this:
    2.1 My headline was strong, pretty short but displaying a benefit and sounding like a real headline. The title also can contain one word with capitalized letters. So a generic headline can be "I will write a KILLER seo optimized 350 words article in just 2 days". It's an ads kinda headline (so maybe not the best example) but you get the idea. Make it sound like smth worthwhile checking out. After you get a bit of feedback you can add in something like "100% positive feedback", " 100% happy clients" or anything like this
    2.2 The text of the actual ad should sound like a mini sales letter. Don't just add some technical stuff there. Add benefits so they can see at a glance what you're offering and how you help them.
    2.3 VIDEO VIDEO VIDEO - add a video for your gig. This is VERY important. It will make your clients trust you faster, as they can see your face. You can say pretty much the same stuff you say on your add text but it's different when they can actually hear you saying it. Mention Fiverr.com in your video. Helps as the video will be perceived as it was specially made for fiverr and fiverr people.
    2.4 SAMPLES < always provide samples of your work. For this you can use the upload images feature on fiverr AND a personal website. Having a personal website also helps with credibility and making you look different from the rest of the people on fiverr. You CANNOT have any kind of contact info on your site or your gig will not be approved.
    2.5 Keywords/Tags - checkout the top gigs that appear for your niche and copy the keywords from there
    2.6 Instructions to the buyer - Make clear what you need from them and when you are going to provide them your work
    2.7 Deadline - Search fiverr.com and see what's the average turnaround time for your kind of gig. Meet that or if you can provide faster your work but never later

    3. Communication
    Always try to reply asap to all messages. On fiverr people move faster so try to reply in 6 to 12 hours or you might lose deals.

    4. Promote your gig
    You can wait for your gig to pick up OR you can start promoting it. How? Simple. Use regular promotional tools such as buy banner advertising on different blogs/sites and post to forums, etc

    5. UPSELL
    Always upsell your clients and keep in touch with them. My actual results were about double in fact as over 40% of the clients from fiverr became real leads for my higher paid services and different upsells I had for that particular gig.

    6. Feedback - in case you have a client and (s)he doesn't leave you feedback ask her/him nicely to tell the world how awesome your service was. This is very important on fiverr as people buy based on your rating/feedback. Also the better feedback you have the higher you'll get on your category and for your keywords.

    Short resume:
    - do your research
    - write your headline and ad body as you'd do for a sales letter
    - add video < very important
    - look professional: provide samples and have a personal blog/site < can be free, doesn't really matter. It's just a way for you to display more sample/portfolio and not be limited by fiverr
    - don't reinvent the wheel: copy other successful gigs' keywords/tags
    - communicate fast
    - get feedback. Do anything to get as much positive feedback as you can
    - upsell and try to get as many off-fiverr leads as you can
    - profit

    Hope this is of use to someone

    Thanks,
    Alex
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  • Profile picture of the author Tonylee93
    I`ve been working hard on fiverr, and Earning a lot to be honest. I found that the best way to use fiverr is take on the jobs to please the customer completely! Your goal is to make them happy! but on the flip side you need to make it happen in less than 15 minutes to be productive. You can always get upsells from this process! and I found that to work out great! Thank you for sharing the information you had here with us! It is going to help a lot of new people in the Internet Marketing Community
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  • Profile picture of the author Madrona
    Banned
    It depends on what service you offer and what the demand of that service in the marketing , there is also too much competitive but if you choose Fiverr platform then you are offering competitive price this is the main thing and main benefit of using Fiverr.
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  • Profile picture of the author Elle Davies
    Keep up the good work

    I totally agree with #4 - you need to love what you're doing; your work usually turns out to be better quality and more satisfying when you put in more effort!
    I still get a little flutter every time someone orders one of my articles on Fiverr...Is that sad??
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  • Profile picture of the author SocialMediaOwls
    If you BYOT (bring your own traffic) you can walk away from the deal if you choose that is what I do.

    This is my earnings for the last 6 months (just took a snapshot 2 minutes ago)



    And I will cancel somebody in a heart beat if they piss me off.

    Make yourself powerful on Fiverr so you can dump somebody when you want to.
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    • Profile picture of the author Ron Desi
      I've seen a few posts on this forum and others that say, "use Fiverr as a lead generation tool" and I even saw one about using Fiverr as a list builder.

      How is this possible? Fiverr is very strict in their TOS that buyers and sellers cannot communicate off site. They monitor messages. I got a stern warning once because I put my email in a message to a buyer (not to communicate off site but to gain access to my DropBox to transfer a large file). They even denied my gig once because my youtube page had my contact information in it.

      So, am I missing something? How are those saying "use it as a lead generation tool" doing that?

      Thanks,
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      • Profile picture of the author wtd1
        Originally Posted by WebsiteVideoPresenter View Post

        I've seen a few posts on this forum and others that say, "use Fiverr as a lead generation tool" and I even saw one about using Fiverr as a list builder.

        How is this possible? Fiverr is very strict in their TOS that buyers and sellers cannot communicate off site. They monitor messages. I got a stern warning once because I put my email in a message to a buyer (not to communicate off site but to gain access to my DropBox to transfer a large file). They even denied my gig once because my youtube page had my contact information in it.

        So, am I missing something? How are those saying "use it as a lead generation tool" doing that?

        Thanks,
        Put your contact info in a text file and attach it to the message.
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